If you or someone you know is pregnant, make sure they read this.
Pregnancy can take a lot out of a woman. And sometimes she doesn’t recover.
I can’t tell you how often a woman who has been overweight, tired, and run down for years tells me that it all started after a particular pregnancy.
Now a new Belgium study points to one possible reason.
The researchers followed 1,900 women over the course of their pregnancy. During that time, they measured thyroid blood tests, thyroid antibody tests, and iron levels. To measure the iron levels, they used a blood test called serum ferritin.
Amazingly, they discovered that more than one-third of the women had iron deficiencies in the first three months of their pregnancy. But that’s not all. They also found that women with iron deficiency were more likely to have low thyroid function. And, in particular, they were also more likely to have what is known as thyroid autoimmunity.
The numbers are astonishing.
Women with iron deficiency were 57% more likely to develop an autoimmune thyroid condition than those with normal iron levels. And they were more than 200% more likely to have low thyroid function. One of the co-authors of the study, Kris Poppe, MD, of Université Libre, pointed out that no one really knows what the possible connection is between low iron levels and low thyroid function. But, he says, it’s something he routinely sees in his practice.
According to Dr. Poppe, “In my daily practice as an endocrinologist, pregnant women are often referred by gynecologists for an altered thyroid function, and I often notice that the women also have low iron levels.”
He goes on to say, “Iron deficiency is not something from the past; it remains an actual health problem in many pregnant women. Therefore, a measurement of ferritin should be performed ideally before, but certainly during, the first trimester of pregnancy. Potentially down the road, it might prompt doctors to screen for thyroid function in women with iron deficiency or anemia, which is not currently done.”
If you’re pregnant, or even considering getting pregnant, be sure to take an iron supplement and have both your ferritin levels and thyroid tests checked at the three-month point.
If you are one of the many women who has not recovered from a previous pregnancy, this study points out that you may have an undiagnosed case of low thyroid function.
And this is important. Even if your thyroid tests are in the so-called “normal range,” that still is no proof that your thyroid is functioning well. That’s because 90% of low thyroid cases are missed when only thyroid blood tests are used.
The only way to really know how well your thyroid is functioning is with Bio-Energy Testing. This is a testing procedure that I describe in my book Bursting With Energy. It uses oxygen utilization to measure basal metabolic rate, the best indicator of thyroid function.
You can find out more about Bio-Energy Testing and a list of doctors offering the test at: www.antiagingmedicine.com/treatments/bio-energy-testing.
Sources:
Veltri, F., S. Decaillet, et al. “Prevalence of thyroid autoimmunity and dysfunction in women with iron deficiency during early pregnancy: is it altered?” Eur J Endocrinol. 2016 September;175(3):191-9.
Walker, Molly. “Pregnancy: Low Iron Linked to Thyroid Dysfunction?” www.medpagetoday.com. July 23, 2016.